Wood mows down Padres

Sosa supplies long 2-run homer

Cubs 3, Padres 2

SAN DIEGO — Cubs starter Kerry Wood pushed the envelope on the mound with an animated jawing session Wednesday night in which he told plate umpire Larry Vanover to put his mask back on.

Wood managed to get by without an ejection and eventually notched his 11th victory in the Cubs' 3-2 win over San Diego.

Wood called it a "heat-of-the-moment incident" but conceded it was the first time he had told an ump to put his mask on.

"It'll probably be the last time I'll tell him," he said with a grin.

Was Wood worried about being tossed?

"At that point, I really wasn't worried about much," he said. "It was an incident that I hope didn't look too childish. But in the heat of the battle, sometimes stuff like that happens."

The Cubs moved past St. Louis and into second-place in the NL Central, remaining 2 1/2 games behind division leader Houston.

Following on the heels of Tuesday's combined shutout by Mark Prior and the bullpen, Wood held the Padres to two runs on five hits in 7 1/3 innings while striking out 10.

It was the eighth double-digit strikeout game of his career, passing Ken Holtzman for ninth place on the all-time Cubs strikeout list with 991.

The Cubs won their fourth straight series, something they hadn't accomplished since early April, when they took consecutive series from Montreal, Pittsburgh (twice) and Cincinnati.

Pitching has carried the Cubs since the All-Star break. They've won eight of their last 11 games, with the starters combining for a 2.14 earned-run average and allowing only 5.5 hits per 9 innings.

Sammy Sosa's 25th home run--a two-run, 448-foot shot to center field off Adam Eaton in the fourth inning--staked Wood to the lead and Kenny Lofton added an RBI single in the fifth to make it 3-0.

Wood (11-8) was nicked for a run in the sixth after walking two of the first three men he faced, leading to the heated argument with Vanover over the strike zone.

Wood soon gave up an RBI single to Rondell White on a 3-0 pitch before settling down and he and Vanover smoothed things over between innings.

"Emotions are high this time of year," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "The dog days are here, and sometimes dogs start barking."

The Cubs are not the perfect team by any stretch of the imagination, with an inconsistent offense, an inexperienced closer and an unexplainable history of failure that's shadowed them for decades.

But the overall feeling in the clubhouse is they have all the necessary ingredients to win, whether management believes it needs to tinker with the team chemistry or not.

"We can do it with what we have here," catcher Damian Miller said. "It's not up to me, but we believe we have a good enough team to do it. If they go out and get somebody, so be it. We have no control over that."